


Snatching Red

by solarpillar (solarwind)



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-19
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-01-13 01:29:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1207765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarwind/pseuds/solarpillar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She said that the sight was so dangerous, she could write songs about it. Would.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For the femslash February.

Yuzu thought, if anyone would snatch anyone away from anyone, it would be Kazuya snatching Haru away from her, or Kazuya snatching her from Atsuro, or Kazuya snatching Atsuro from her.

In other words, she thought Kazuya would be the one doing the snatching.

Then Kazuya got snatched away from her by Naoya of all people.

Naoya. Kazuya's cousin. On the father's side too.

She saw them make out under the new apple tree behind their apartment, Kazuya smiling like a young woman in love, his fair face and blue eyes rather radiant under his cousin's kisses.

Then Yuzu somehow snatched Haru away from Kazuya, almost in revenge.

_You smell dangerous too. I wonder why I have not noticed before._

Dangerous was not the word Yuzu would have used to describe herself. Frustrated, maybe. Hurt. In pain. Betrayed. Outraged.

Haru said that she looked like a wildfire ready to spread, as if she was going to burn the entire city down. She said that the sight was so dangerous, she could write songs about it. Would.

And did.

It was rather rock and punk, too.

It spoke of burning passion, of fire that embraced fire, of little girls riding monsters.

It spoke of burning warmth, of red that embraced red, of little girls guiding monsters.

And, in the singer's bedroom, Haru guided Yuzu's hands to her breasts and to her bright flower tattoo, let the girl warrior ride her till the sun comes out.


	2. Chapter 2

Haru didn't eat much or sleep much, despite the quantity of work she does. One might wonder how she stayed alive. She was like Naoya in that regard, all works and no self-maintaining. She ate meat, at least, unlike Naoya who ate candies for meals, but she also drank hard liquor, much more than Naoya, and that played more than one number on her health. 

"You shouldn't drink more," Yuzu suggested.

"Make me," Haru said as she tried to wrestle the glass back, to no avail. She was too drunk and Yuzu was no frail woman.

"And you should stop drinking too," Yuzu warned Naoya, "you are making a bad example."

"Make me," Naoya echoed, and he was strong enough to keep his glass, to Yuzu's despair. Their strength did match, but Naoya cheated with magic.

Yuzu ordered herself a glass, randomly from the menu. "If you two are going to insist on drinking," she lifted the glass of dubious liquid, "I'm going to do the same, and nobody is going to drive you home."

"How old are you again?" Haru asked.

"18." Yuzu answered. Eighteen. Old enough to have sex or drive a car, but too young to legally have a drink. A bit ridiculous.

"Then you can't have this," Haru said as she snatched and downed the glass of Lime Rickey.

"Just what happened? Can't you two explain instead of drowning yourselves in alcohol?" Yuzu begged.

"Politics." Naoya said.

"Aya." Haru said.

"Isn't Aya dead? She-" Yuzu stopped herself too late.

"Oh, it's okay, Naoya told me." Haru said, trying to get her glass back with difficulty.

"Aya's gone, stop thinking about her." Naoya said as he tried to order a drink not on the menu, possibly in foreign language.

"Aya's not gone." Haru retorted. "If she's gone then your cousin's gone too."

"My brother's soul got tainted a long time ago," Naoya said as he gave up on his drink, "Aya's different. Her soul was gone the moment she sank into the darkness. Will you excuse me? I think I'm going to pass out."

And he did.

And Haru did too, before Yuzu could say anything.

 

Dragging two adults to their respective home was difficult, so Yuzu settled for the bedroom behind the bar. Good thing that they were in Gin's bar. Carrying them one at time was not difficult, given how they were mere bags of bones with skin, but keeping Haru's dress up was. That thing showed way too much skin. It fell off at slightly provocation, and flashed quite a few passerbys, and Yuzu could only pray that nobody took a picture. Cellphones these days have mandatory shutter sounds for cameras, but hacking them into not have sounds were easy, and even if they had sounds the bar was loud enough to hide them.

Yuzu could only imagine the headlines it would make. Rising Diva Threesome with Teenage Girl and Strange Programmer. Drunk Threesome Behind Bar In Tokyo Downtown. Evil Genius Found in Bed With Diva and Girl. Bisexual Musician Embraced Her Sexuality in Drunk Threesome Behind Classy Bar.

Either way, the scandal could either help or kill Haru's career, and Yuzu wished it wouldn't be the latter.

 

Haru only slept naked, and Yuzu's a girl, after all, so she helped her undress, tucked her in bed, and covered her well.

 

Naoya, on the other hand.

 

"...Did Naoya really got drunk?" Kazuya asked, skeptical.

"Apparently, since he's all passed out and all?" She gestured the drunk and passed out man on the floor.

"Well," Kazuya said, took out his cellphone and snapped a few pictures, "this is going on the netherworld news for sure."

"No you aren't!"

Kazuya laughed. "Don't worry! I'm not really going to. It's for my personal collection." 

 

Carefully, Kazuya held his cousin in his arms, bridal style, and carried him with relative ease. He opened a portal to their apartment and, less carefully, put Naoya on the bed. 

 

"Do you want a lift?" He offered, pointing at the portal.

"Oh, no, thank you," Yuzu answered, "I'd like to stay with Haru here."

He nodded, and handed Yuzu a small box. "Good luck then." He winked at her, before closing the portal.

 

A peek inside the box made Yuzu scream in shame.


	3. Chapter 3

"Morning, Princess."

New media were deceiving in their presentation of women as being seductive when waking up. Haru was, in Yuzu's eyes, anything but seductive in that state. She was vulnerable. Pale. Ill. Her hair was stirred straw, her face vampire pale, even her lips. Her eyes were bloodshot. Her breath stank of alcohol and rotten meat. Her skeletal frames looked even more corpse-like than usual, and her flower, so bright, stood out so much it hurt, and reminded Yuzu less of passion and more of the other shore.

And why did she had to speak first, when Yuzu was the one awake by the bed.

"Haru, your breath stinks."

Haru smiled. "You are an honest one. I like that. What's in that box?"

Yuzu took out a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste and gave them to her. They smelled like lemon. Because a lemon was precisely another item in the box. Fresh, fragrant lemon. And a white lily, but its scent could not rival the aggressiveness of citrus kind.

"What about you?"

"I've already brushed my teeth." Yuzu pointed at an opened set laid on the dinner table. 

"Good, then I'll be going. Gosh, I need a shower too. Is there a shampoo in there?"

Yuzu took out a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of conditioner. Then a bottle of body soap. Then a soap + cream set for face and neck.

"I didn't know you came so prepared." Haru chuckled. 

"I didn't prepare this." 

"Oh?" Haru hesitated. "Naoya then?"

"Kazuya."

Haru smiled like a wild fox. "Ah, the dangerous boy. He sure knows his women, doesn't he?"

Yuzu was thankful that Haru didn't wait for a reply. The room they borrowed had a kitchen and a dinner table, so she was going to take advantage of that. There was a pitcher there. She had a lemon. She also had flower press and honey. There was no pans or panini grills, no eggs or cherry tomatoes. The box, however, did hold small packs of Hokkaido Lovers. 

 

"Lovely breakfast. Sadly, there is no meat." Haru took a sip of the lemonade. "Excellent work, Yuzu. Fresh lemon and flower press, stirred not shaken. You are becoming a competent drink mixer. Ooh, Hokkaido Lovers. Romantic, but bland. I prefer snacks that pack more punch. Spices are a girl's best friends."

 

Yuzu liked Hokkaido Lovers. The taste was subtle, too subtle, but the bittersweet and the lingering aftertaste of sweetness was something she loved. She loved snacks that were bitter and sweet. Chocolates. She wanted chocolates. Not when mixed with milk and sugar, but pure black chocolate, the kind with bitterness that numbed your mouth until it was all gone and all that left was a ghost of sweetness.

 

Then Haru climbed up to her throat, and she wanted milk chocolate instead. Sweet white chocolate. Milk chocolate that was barely brown. Truffles. Strawberries coated in chocolate. Caramel coated in chocolate. Pure caramel. Sweet. She wanted sweet. Deep, nauseating sweetness. Sweet like the warmth inside Haru, bitter like the demons they want to escape from, nauseating like the river of lies they tell to themselves. She entered her hard enough to receive screams of pains, pains so intimately mixed with pleasures, pains that reminded both of them that they had nowhere to escape or hide.

 

Hide. Shelter. Kazuya, who let Yuzu borrow Naoya's old room. Kazuya, who promised to protect her. Kazuya, who gave her a place to be. Kazuya. Kazuya. Kazuya.

 

_Kazuya._

 

Haru had stopped her screams. She lied motionless under Yuzu, like a broken doll. No. _Dead_ doll. A doll when all the make-believes stopped, when the magic is gone and a grown-up girl was left with an empty shell of what she once dreamt, when the doll was a honest object unable to continue with the little girl's pretends, mute and in tatters.

 

"How foolish of me..."

 

How foolish of both of them.

 

"Aya... First Gin, then Kazuya. They are good men. But why..."

 

Why indeed. 

 

_Aya._

 

She was her lifeline. Why would a gentleman snatch that away. He didn't. Not completely. Aya was there, but as Gin's, not a lifeline but an inspiring accessory. Aya. It was so unfair. Then Aya belonged to no one, and it might have been better this way.

 

_Aya._

 

It was so unfair.

 

There, behind Gin's bar, Yuzu held Haru close and kissed her tears, but the more she kissed the more they flowed.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do they even have panini grills in Japan. I think they must because otherwise how do people eat their sandwiches.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cannibalism joke will be hidden in this chapter.

"You don't have to do that, you know."

Yuzu didn't care. She stared the king in the eyes, the king that was her friend, and asked again.

"Alright. It's in the box too."

  
It was. A red pill.

  
"...Matrix?"

Kazuya laughed. "Nah, I'm not Morpheus. This is concentrated neurotransmitters, along with some magic, some extracted from the data of The King's Gate."

"...wait, isn't that called a stimulant or something?"

Kazuya's face was unreadable. Yuzu didn't like that face. It made Kazuya look like Naoya, and Yuzu didn't like Naoya.

"It is a stimulant, of sort. It will awaken your latent powers... See, according to Lilith, humans are just demon larvae. Or angel larvae, for that matter. We are all of the same species. It's all up to us to pick a path."

"So we are Wurmple. Great."

“Go team Dustox!”

“Hey! Hey! I wanted to be Beautifly!”

“Beautifly stabs living creatures in the face and drink their body fluids. But Dustox is vegetarian.”

“...That's a good point. Dustox then. Pass me the sugar.”

“That's Naoya's most prized sugar, you shouldn't take that much.”

“All the better.”

  
Yuzu let down the cup. White porcelain, Peony. While Kazuya's was Lotus. The meaning of Lotus was _to be born of mud but untainted by filth_ , but Kazuya was both that and not that.

Peony, on the other hand, Yuzu did not remember. It was without doubt Naoya's own cup, but why Peony? Was it nobleness?

  
“Who is Aya now?” was instead what Yuzu asked.

“Aya is now the Demon of Dawn, a Demon Lord in east borderlands of Netherworld.”

“Demon of Dawn?”

“Aya was the name of an Akkadian Goddess.” Kazuya poured himself another cup. “She was the wife of Shamash, and she was called the bride. In the ceremony of sacred marriage, her statue used to be placed next to the statue of her groom.” He frowned at the bitterness of overbrewed tea, and added sugar. “There is no Dawn without Sun. She was Dawn. Shamash was Sun. This aspect of our Aya must have overlapped with that Aya, so they merged, just like what happened with Abel and Bel. Beloved son to beloved son. Beloved dawn to beloved dawn. Aya was Haru's dawn, wasn't she? But in the end, the dawn could only be bride to the sun, and Gin was the one whose bar allowed Haru to practice.”

“...but Gin and Aya weren't married.”

“Details. The logic of Netherworld cares less about who you are with and more about who you are, and Aya was attracted to sun-like men alright. Gin. Naoya.”

Yuzu smashed a biscuit. “But none of them are sunshine and puppies.”

Kazuya swallowed his. “They aren't. Sun is harsh, proud, powerful and frugal in mercy.”

“But,” Yuzu said, putting smashed bits into her cup, “Aya. How can I summon her? Can Haru summon her?”

“Forget about that.” Kazuya's face was solemn. The steam of his tea grew strong, bending his image like a veil of heat, and should Yuzu be familiar with Ars Goetia, she would be surprised at his resemblance to Caim amidst his burning coal. “Aya is not up for summon. Not for you. Not for Haru. If you want Haru to be happy, be her love and dawn. There is no point fetching a dead ray of light.”

“But that was exactly what Naoya did with you!”

“With Abel. I'm Kazuya.”

  
Yuzu only stared as Kazuya finished his overheat tea.

  
“But...”

“I'm more than Abel. I'm Kazuya. I'm the king, I'm the prophet, I'm the rain and storm that brings the water for the crops, I'm the martyr died before sin, I'm the high-school student who listens to Eminem on kitty headphones.”

“And Aya...”

“She was not the same. I regained some essence of myself through the battle for the throne, crossed The King's Gate of my own will, and cast away my humanity myself, and only my humanity. She was torn apart to be eaten until a part merged with a goddess. There's less left of her than of me, even though I shattered the first time.”

“It's still Aya...”

“Not enough. But if you want, you can meet her yourself.”

“How?”

 

The king pointed to the red pill.

 

* * *

 

Naoya was home after Yuzu was gone. He noticed that the peony cup was used, and took the bamboo one instead.

  
“Naoya?”  
“Mmhmm?”  
“Is it not the time for bamboo blossoms yet, is it?”

  
Naoya didn't say anything. He has the same blank concerned look as every time when Kazuya was hurt bad enough, and that spoke more than Kazuya needed.

  
“No,” Kazuya confirmed, “it is not time yet.”  
“But for her, perhaps it is?” Naoya poured the content of the kettle into the sink. “But she is no bamboo blossom, I believe. My king knows better than to date a bamboo.”  
“No,” Kazuya confirmed again, “I prefer pines. The needle leaves and rough but fragrant barks are especially enticing.”

  
Once Naoya was bare, Kazuya began to lick.

 

* * *

 

  
 _Haru._  
 _I will get Aya back for you._  
 _So cheer up, OK?_

 

* * *

 

  
She lit the COMP, and swallowed the pill.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed Hannibal. Bamboo and Pine are sushi ranks. Kazuya called Naoya finest sushi and licked him, which hints that whatever is happening between them is more twisted than the first chapter implied. Demons aren't human at all, and there is a reason why Aya is considered lost cause.
> 
> Bamboo blooms when they are about to die. Bamboo are also second rank quality sushi.
> 
> I'll let you work out Peony.


End file.
